Staff Reporter / NEW DELHI
As many as 70 districts in 16 states have witnessed 150 per cent increase in COVID-19 cases in the last 15 days, according to government data.
Briefing media here today, Secretary in Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said, the contribution of active cases as well as the case fatality rate is less than 2 per cent. He said, it is significant as some states have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The Health Secretary said, the cumulative positivity rate in the country has gone down below 5 per cent. He said, in the last one week the positivity rate has been nearly 3 per cent. Mr Bhushan said, 60 per cent of all active cases are concentrated in Maharashtra. He said, Punjab’s positivity rate is now 6.8 per cent, it is worrying and it shows that COVID19 appropriate behaviour is not being followed. Mr Bhushan said, there has been renewed focus on Test, Track, Treat and Vaccinate.
The Health Secretary said, more than 3.51 crore vaccine doses have been administered. He said, more than 1.2 crore Health Care Workers, over 92 lakh Front Line Workers have been vaccinated. Mr Bhushan said, 1.38 crore people aged 60 years and above have got their first dose of vaccine till now. He said, more than 50 thousand public and private hospitals are functioning as COVID vaccination centres.
The Health Secretary said, vaccines are invaluable commodities, their wastage has to be drastically reduced. He said, average COVID vaccine wastage in India is 6.5 per cent. He added that Telangana and Andhra Pradesh recorded 17.6 per cent and 11.6 per cent of vaccine wastage.
Mr Bhushan said, on 15th March, 8.34 million COVID19 vaccine doses were administered worldwide of which India alone administered 36 per cent of doses. He said, Government of India has provided 7 crore 54 lakh vaccine doses to the States till now.